Parimutuel betting is a form of gambling in which the winners of a betting line divide the total amount bet on the betting line. The winners split the pot according to the proportion of winning bets each winner places on the winning choice. For example, if a total of $1,000 is bet on a betting line, a total of $100 is bet on the winning outcome of the betting line, and Player X bets $1 on the winning outcome, Player X would receive a parimutuel payoff of 1 percent of the $1000 pot, or $10. In order to cover costs and taxes, gambling establishments that administer parimutuel betting events typically deduct a percentage of the total amount bet before paying off the winners. Thus, in the foregoing example, the gambling establishment might retain 15 percent of the pot, or $150, and Player X would receive only $8.50. Horse races and dog races are typical examples of betting events that payoff on a parimutuel basis.
With the invention of the Internet and other computer network systems, various games have been devised that can be played over the Internet or on computer network systems. Some of these games involve sporting events. As far as the inventor can determine, no electronic parimutuel betting game (“PBG”) has been devised that incorporates one or more of the following characteristics of the present invention.
1) Asymmetric and Unpredictable Open-Close-Terminate Cycles
In the PBG of the present invention, the pattern of Open-Close-Terminate (“O-C-T”) commands (typically issued by the administrator) for each betting line has the following form (herein also referred to as a “cycle”):
O(1)≦C(1)≦T; if n=1, or
O(1)≦C(1) . . . ≦O(n)≦C(n)≦T, if n is an integer greater than 1,
where n is the number of repetitions of O-C in the cycle.
Asymmetric O-C-T sequences allow the parimutuel style odds to stay in synch with the live event by opening and closing betting lines as the event progresses. The relative amounts wagered by the players on the choices on a betting line change during the course of the live event, due to changing circumstances inherent in live events. Since the currently open line contains only recent bets, the resulting odds on the current line reflect the current situation in the live event. When the betting line closes, the amounts wagered on the line and the resulting odds on the choices are fixed at their levels at the time the line closes. The value of n (the number of O-C repetitions in the cycle) is unpredictable, as it depends completely on how the live event unfolds and therefore cannot be known in advance. The cycles are asymmetric since n is different in different cycles.
For example, in the DRIVE event in football (described in further detail below; see FIG. 8C), a new betting line opens whenever the driving team gets a new set of downs, and possibly at other times too. Before a new line opens, the previous line must close, so C(i)≦O(i+1). A new line will open when the relative likelihoods of the various possible outcomes change appreciably (e.g. after a first down), or for other reasons (e.g. a “random alarm clock” goes off). When the drive begins there is no way to know in advance how many times the line will open and close before it terminates. At some point the outcome of the betting event becomes known, (e.g., a touchdown or fumble) and the DRIVE event terminates. This triggers all the lines in the current cycle (since the drive began) to pay off simultaneously. In each of the lines in the current cycle the same choice is the winning choice (e.g. “touchdown” if the driving team scores a touchdown), but the payoff odds on each of the lines will be different, depending on the circumstances on the field when that line was open (i.e. the odds on touchdown were much higher early in the drive than later). There could be numerous repetitions of this cycle (with a different “n” each time) in each football game, e.g., there are typically more than 20 DRIVE cycles in a football game. On the other hand, the WINNER event (see FIG. 8E) terminates only once: at the end of the game. There can be numerous O-C-T cycles going on simultaneously, i.e., one for each betting event. A new line can be opened whenever the odds on the final outcome of the event suddenly change, thereby locking in the odds on the previous line. Players that bet on the eventual winning choice early in the cycle are therefore (usually) rewarded with higher payoff odds than players that make bets later in the cycle, when the eventual outcome is less in doubt.
2) Bonuses
“Bonuses” are not used in standard parimutuel wagering. The present invention provides methods for including bonuses in PBGs and for computing the “odds” on each choice in a way that takes the bonus into account. The bonuses are an important feature of the present invention and not just a simple way of giving players extra tokens. The bonuses inflate the odds on the choices, especially when the betting volume is low. This encourages players to bet early and often, like the ante in a poker hand.
3) Hierarchical Parimutuel Wagering
The betting lines in a PBG can have a “tree” structure, as illustrated by the BATTER betting hierarchy shown in FIG. 8A. The prior art does not provide a means for extending parimutuel wagering from a simple line with no branching (such as the lines used in horse racing and other sports books) to a hierarchical parimutuel payoff structure. The algorithm and methods discussed in section 4 provides such an extension. The odds on each choice in a hierarchal betting line are the payoff to a player placing one token on that choice, if it wins. The odds on each choice in turn reflect the PBG players' betting activity on that betting line.
4) Liquid—Frozen Asset Dynamics
In one embodiment of the PBG of the present invention, the players' assets (such as measured in “tokens”) are divided into two types: “liquid” and “frozen.” Liquid assets are tokens that players can use to place bets. Frozen assets are tokens that have been wagered on betting lines that have not yet terminated. Active players will always have some frozen assets, but they must be careful to keep some assets liquid, or they will not be able to place any new bets. When a line terminates, winners are paid off and tokens won become liquid. All the tokens bet on a line (the frozen assets) are forfeited when the line terminates, however players with winning bets recoup the tokens bet on that choice as part of their payoff.
5) Long-Term vs. Short-Term Bets
The lengths of the betting events differ for each betting event in the PBG of the present invention. Some rounds are short, like the DRIVE event in football, or the BATTER event in baseball. Some events like WINNER do not terminate until the end of the game, so there is only one WINNER betting cycle. However, many betting lines will open and close in a typical WINNER betting event (i.e., the value of n can be very large) since the odds are in a constant state of change. Due to the liquid-frozen asset dynamics just described, players must be clever about how they split their wagering between short term bets (which will become liquid again soon if they win) and long term bets (which will stay frozen, but may pay off very well if they win). In the PBG of the present invention, the players are free to bet any amount (as long as they have enough liquid assets to cover the bet) on any choice on any open betting line during the game. The “money management” aspect of the PBG may be as important as the “sports knowledge” aspect in skillful play.
6) Multi-Person Game of Skill
Due to the parimutuel-style wagering, the players in the present invention are in direct competition with each other, i.e., one player's winnings must come from other players' losses. Two or three players could compete in a PBG, or so could ten million. The game itself remains basically the same regardless of the number of players. As mentioned above, the game requires sports knowledge and money management skills. In some versions of the PBG, skillful players will also monitor the assets of their opponents so that they can chose between risky and safe strategies.
7) Administrator with Responsibilities
One embodiment of the present invention utilizes the services of an administrator. The administrator's primary duties are to open, close, pause and terminate betting lines at appropriate times and declare the winning outcome when a line terminates. The administrator could be confined to rigid rules specifying when lines open, close, and terminate (e.g., whenever certain kinds of events occur, or when a “random alarm clock” goes off), but the game is more interesting when the administrator is an integral part of the game. In particular the administrator can be allowed quite a bit of room for judgment with respect to the times that new lines open (the termination times and winning choice should be unambiguous). As mentioned, new lines preferably open whenever the game situation changes enough so that the odds on the choices are significantly different than they were for the previous line. Lines can open at other times as well, for example, if the action on a line is heavy. All of these choices require judgment calls by the administrator. The administrator can also choose the bonus sizes (if he/she does not, bonuses can be set to some default amount), allocate tokens to players (e.g., give 100 tokens to everybody at the start of each quarter in a football game), and broadcast messages to the players.
As far as the inventor can determine, the game with the most in common with the PBG of the present invention is QB1. Examples of QB1 can be viewed at www.buzztime.com and www.fox.com. Another game that is similar or identical to QB1 is “Enhanced TV,” which can be viewed at www.espn.com and www.abc.com. Because QB1 and Enhanced TV are very similar, the following discussion will focus on QB1. Based on information and belief, QB1 was first used in public during the summer of 2000. QB1 consists of a series of opportunities to guess the next play in a football game. For example a player can guess that the next play will be a pass, or be more specific and guess pass-long-right. In a baseball version of QB1, players would guess what a batter will do in a baseball game. QB1 is a multi-person game played over the internet and there is an administrator, who is termed a “referee.” However, there are significant differences between QB1 and the present invention.
QB1 is not a betting game. It is more like a “trivia” game: players make guesses and are either right, partly right, or wrong. “Payoffs” only depend on their answers. The PBG of the present invention is a betting game. Players choose how much to wager on their choices and they can bet on more than one choice. The payoffs are parimutuel style, so the amount a player wins depends on what other players do. In QB1, players simply accumulate points. There is no analog of liquid and frozen assets since there is no betting. Also, the Open-Close-Terminate sequences in QB1 are symmetric and predetermined (and therefore predictable). The O-C-T sequence in QB1 is always:
O(1)≦C(1)≦T(1)≦O(2)≦C(2)≦T(2)≦O(3)≦C(3)≦T(3), etc.
In other words, with each termination event there is only one betting line to terminate. This is in contrast with the PBG of the present invention which can have a cycle of multiple open and closed betting lines for the same termination event.
Although QB1 is a multi-person game, it lacks the direct competition between the players that the PBG of the present invention has. In QB1, each player is essentially playing against the house. The activity of other players, or even their existence, is irrelevant to the player's score. Thus QB1 is best described as several player vs. house games in parallel, whereas the PBG for the present invention can be described as a player vs. player game since one player's wins must come from another player's losses. There is no money management aspect to QB1, so it is not a game of skill to the extent that the PBG is. The administrator or “referee” in QB1 is essentially an automaton. There is very little, if any, room for him or her to exhibit any style, or to make decisions affecting the game. This is due mainly to the trivial nature of the O-C-T sequences of QB1.
Other methods of conducting sports games over computer networks are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,015,345 (Kail) discloses methods of conducting games of chance using predicted sums of scores in sporting events. A weekly or other regularly scheduled game of chance is conducted in conjunction with a series of seasonal sporting events, such as baseball, football, hockey, U.S. and international basketball and volleyball games, in which a number of specific games are identified on a printed or electronic game card, and the participant marks the game card with the predicted total of points scored by both teams for each of the identified sporting events, which can include one or more alternate events. Data related to predicted scores and the fee paid are entered into a programmed central computer system for eventual processing and matching with data entered for the actual scores when the identified games are completed to identify the winners. The participant receives a receipt and unique transaction code. Participant data entry and payment means can include third-party ATMs and cash machines, and third-party vendors and participants' PCs connected to the central computer via the Internet, with payment made through the participants' credit or debit accounts. In an alternative embodiment, predictions can include the actual number of points scored during subsets of the contests.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,090 (Zeile et al) discloses a sports chance game comprising an apparatus and method for playing a sports chance game that includes means for storing team names, players on each team, and a first group of occurrences which could happen during a sports event contested by the two teams. A processor randomly selects a second group of occurrences from the first group of occurrences and randomly arranges each of the second group of possible occurrences into individual locations on a patterned layout on a scorecard for a verified user of the game. The processor determines matches between the second group of possible occurrences on each scorecard with events which actually occurred at the sports event and determines a winning scorecard based on a certain number of matches and/or the location of the matches on each scorecard.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,512 (Chichester) discloses an electronic football game in which a game system is implemented on a digital computer that is connected to a network such as the Internet. The game system enables a user to choose members of a football team and play a game of football against an opponent at a remote location. A copy of all game parameters is stored in two different media-a RAM and a disk memory. The user's graphical and keyboard inputs are fed into the RAM as events initiated by the user. The opponent's inputs are fed into the user's disk memory as write statements. A microprocessor is used periodically and systematically to compare the parameters in the user's RAM to the parameters stored in the user's disk memory. If there is a discrepancy between the RAM parameters and the disk memory parameters, the microprocessor will update any of the parameters on the user's RAM or send write signals to update the opponent's disk memory based upon the type of discrepancy detected.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,830,069 (Soltesz et al) provides for the transmission and conduct of a bingo game at more than one site, through the use of a private wide area network (“WAN”), on which participants are qualified and controlled. Each site has a PC computer, with peripheral equipment, which communicates on a WAN. This is done by the present invention with considerably less hardware setup cost at each location, and with a lower operating cost, than is found in the prior art. Access to the present invention is more easily controlled than under the video broadcast prior art, and unauthorized participants may be more easily excluded from participation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,957,775 (Cherry) discloses a wagering game based on a ranking order of game participants. A wagering game played by a player includes a set of game participants, an identification number assigned to each of the game participants, and a game number. The player places a wager based on the game number, and a ranking order of the game participants is determined, such as by a race. The sum of the identification numbers of a subset of the game participants is calculated, the subset of game participants having a predetermined number of game participants selected on the basis of the ranking order of the game participants. Whether the player's wager is a winning wager is determined by comparing the sum to the game number. The wagering game may be implemented as an electronic game.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,120,376 (Cherry) also discloses a wagering game based on a ranking order of game participants. A wagering game for play by a player includes a set of game participants, an identification number assigned to each of the game participants, and a game number. The player places a wager relating to the game number, and a ranking order of the game participants is determined, such as by a race to a finishing point. The sum of the identification numbers of a subset of the game participants may be calculated. The number of lengths by which a first ordered game participant beats another ordered game participant to the finishing point may also be calculated. Whether the player's wager is a winning wager is determined by comparing the sum or the number of lengths to the game number. The wagering game may be implemented as an electronic game.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,126,543 (Friedman) discloses a method for wagering on multiple sporting events. Each sporting event involves two teams, each team having associated therewith a point spread used in determining whether a wager made on the team is won. The bettor selects a team from each of two or more events upon which to place a wager. The point spreads associated with the selected teams are summed to define a combined point spread wager, and the bettor wagers on the combined point spread. The bettor wins the wager if a sum of point differentials associated with the selected teams as determined from the results of the sporting events covers the combined point spread. Combination bets may also be placed on over/under numbers. Combination betting allows bettors to place an interest on a number of different games while maintaining that interest until all games are completed.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,152,822 (Herbert) discloses a wagering system and method for betting using the odds from previously completed sporting events such as horse races or dog races. The wagering system assigns a probability value to the outcome of a sporting event that has already been completed. A random number generator is programmed so that when a bet is made on one or more betting machines, the odds of accessing the correct outcome (i.e. winning) correlate to the probability value assigned to the previously completed sporting event. Because the final results of the sporting events have been published, the players can verify the wagering system gave the correct outcome. The wagering system can be easily implemented in a slot machine format connected to a network.
Despite the existence of current electronic technology there remains a need for a game that allows for parimutuel betting on a live event where at least some of the betting can take place while the live event is in progress.